The After-Party
by VicTheButcher
Summary: After Shikamaru's ascension to jonin, stuff gets shaken up a bit. Fluffy, sappy, it is what it is.


Cursing lightly under his breath, Shikamaru cursed all his friends. He'd wanted only to slip quietly from the ceremony, go to his small apartment, and maybe watch some tv before hitting the hay. Kiba, however, had caught sight (or scent, maybe? Damn the Inuzukas and their senses.) of him and invited himself along with the rest of their graduating class to Shikamaru's aforementioned small apartment.

It had been almost bearable until Choji returned with enough food to feed them all, though nobody besides the unwilling host himself knew that he hadn't bought all that food for anyone but himself.

It had been almost livable until extra guests showed up, invited by the current guests, filling his poor apartment to the rafters with raucous guffawing and drunken singing. Shikamaru didn't even understand why it was DRUNKEN singing, as he kept a dry house.

And then one voice cut through all the revelry.

"Shika, you lazy ass! I can't believe you actually did it!" Shikamaru bolted upright from his slouched position on the couch at the sound of Ino's screech.

"Yeah, well, it was less troublesome than coming up with reasons to NOT do it." Muttered Shikamaru as he turned his head around, rubbing his temples with the pads of his fingers. He hadn't touched a drop of saké, but felt like he'd have a hangover the next day anyways.

"Oh, lighten up, it's a party!" Choji laughed, plopping down on the seat next to him. The Akimichi clapped him playfully on the shoulder, a plate in his other hand threatening to bend in half, as cheap paper plates were like to do when piled dangerously high with food.

"Yeah, YOUR party, moron!" Ino's hand landed in Shikamaru's other shoulde as she made her way onto the seat next to Shikamaru, though a little more gracefully than Choji had.

Throwing her arms around his neck, Ino whispering congratulations into his ear. Shikamaru stiffened slightly as the hairs on his neck stood on end at her warm breath. His arms came clumsily around to the small of her back, and she leaned into him slightly.

"Promise not to forget your old team now that you're a big-shot jonin, yeah?" Choji smiled at his two embracing friends, but only Shikamaru caught the sly look in his best friend's eye.

"He wouldn't dare! He knows we'd knock him down a peg or two if he got a big head!" Ino slipped back from Shikamaru's arms as she spoke, punching him lightly in the gut.

"Yeah, yeah..." Sniffed Shikamaru in reply, turning his head towards Choji to hide his reddening face from Ino. Sure, Choji would rub him about his complexion, but Ino would do worse.

She'd coyly ask why she had such an effect on the normally unflappable "Shadow Genius".

And that wasn't a line of questioning Shikamaru was comfortable with.

"Awwww, come on, Shika! I'm just kidding! We know you won't forget us, we're the ones that got you here anyways!" Ino nudged him in the ribs, making him jerk away from her. Damn her for her encyclopedic knowledge of his squirmy, ticklish spots.

"Yeah, if you count nagging me every damn day until I took the test as 'getting me here', then you'd be right." Scoffed Shikamaru as he batted away Ino's offending fingers before they darted back to his side.

"You never would've taken it if she stopped getting on your case, Shikamaru." Choji stated sagely, nodding at his own statement.

"Yeah! Even though you could've passed the test in your sleep!" Ino was now feinting and poking at Shikamaru's neck as she tried to wriggle her fingers against him.

"Knowing him, he did!" Boomed out Choji, snorting with laughter into his soggy-bottomed plate of barbecue.

This set Ino off into a fit of laughter as Shikamaru grabbed her wrists and pinned them together in one hand.

"Don't make me Shadow Bind these together." Warned Shikamaru as his blonde teammate giggled, trying to work her hands from his grasp.

"No fair! Your hands are way bigger than mine!" Shikamaru gulped as Ino pouted prettily, sticking her bottom lip out exaggeratedly.

Whatever Shikamaru's reply was, his yelp of surprise choked it off when Ino bolted forward, biting the fleshy pad of his palm. Shocked, Shikamaru released her hands, and they dove in for the kill.

Poking and prodding, Shikamaru could feel Ino's slender fingers even through his flak jacket. Mortified he couldn't keep the laughter from spilling from his mouth as Ino tickled him mercilessly. He was powerless against her, she knew his every weak spot. His third rib, the skin right below his left collarbone, right under his right ear, even his right pectoral...Ino struck with the ruthlessness of a kunoichi coupled with the precision of a medical-nin.

Guffawing embarrassingly, Shikamaru tried to get his wits together, which was difficult considering the sneaky little minx was fighting dirty.

They'd agreed when they were six that biting was off limits, damn it. She'd gone too far, the cheater.

Working quickly, Shikamaru's hands crashed together in a sequence of seals.

Suddenly, Ino's hands came to a stop and she squeaked in surprise. An inky cord had apparently wrapped around her hands, lashing them firmly together. It traveled up her arms, than around her shoulders, and than finally around her torso down to her waist.

Even as her eyes shot open in shock, Shikamaru doubled over onto the ground, clutched his stomach, and roared with laughter into his carpet. "You-look like-a-caterpillar!" He choked out between body-shaking laughs.

Choji only stood up and walked off, smiling a chuckling under his breath at his oldest friends.

"Let me go, you asshole!" Ino shouted.

Shikamaru stood shakily, still clutching his stomach and roaring with laughter. "No! You'll kill me!"

"I'll kill you either way!" She was straining against the shadows, despite knowing nothing could break his shadows.

"Hey, they only last for a few minutes! At least I can get a head start this way!" Backing away from the couch, Shikamaru wiped his eyes with the heels of his hands. Maybe he WOULD have fun at this party.

"Shikaaaaa!" Ino was rocking back and forth now, trying to get to her feet.

"Careful,you're going to-"

"Eep!" Ino squealed as she fell forward off the couch, landing face down with her ass in the air.

"...fall!" Shikamaru leaned forward, putting his hands on his knees to steady himself against the oncoming torrent of laughter shaking his body.

Ino only moaned sadly, muffled against the carpet.

Forty-five minutes later, Shikamaru was standing by the door nodding at his party-goers as they filed one by one out the door.

After the house was cleared, Shikamaru made his down the hallway leading to his room, grinning at the closed door. As soon as he had collected himself after his last laugh attack, he let Ino out of the shadows, and she had simply stood up, sniffed imperiously, and stalked into his room. Slamming the door behind her. Hard. In fact, Shikamaru had winced at the impact, sure she'd thrown it from its hinges.

He had mingled with the others after that, feeling a little looser and more sociable. Kiba was drunk, Choji was shoveling rice down his gullet, and Naruto was loud as always. The usual, but Shikamaru found himself enjoying the familiarity and warmth his friends brought into his normally quiet and borderline sterile apartment.

"Hey, Ino! Everyone's gone!" Shikamaru raised his voice at the closed door.

"Then be gone with them, asshole!" Ino shouted through the door. She was probably sulking in his bed, with the covers pulled up all the way if the extra layer of muffle her words carried were any indication.

"Come on, it's my room! Damn it." He cursed as the door handle wouldn't turn. "You locked me out of my own room!"

"You're damn right I did. It's what you get." Ino's voice carried a teasing smile, one that Shikamaru could picture easily.

"Fine. Have it your way." Shikamaru concentrated for a second, and a thin tendril of shadow extended from his own and reached under the door. With her being buried under his covers, she wouldn't notice as his shadow crept up her side of the door and unlocked it.

Shikamaru pushed the door open and grinned at the lump under all his covers, noting that only a spray of golden tresses peaked from the sea of linen.

Clearing his throat, Shikamaru crossed his arms.

A pair of small white hands appeared outside the covers, pulling them down to reveal a forehead and a pair of cerulean eyes. "Damn you, Shika. Too damn smart for your own good." She mumbled.

"You had to have known I'd do that."

"Wipe that smirk off, asshole. What time is it?"

"Two A.M. Party's over. I don't care where you go, but you can't stay here."

"But Shiiiiikaaa..." Whined the girl, eyebrows pursing into a pout he knew well.

"Tch, troublesome," Shikamaru scoffed. "Goooo hoooome."

"No! It's too far to walk at night!"

"You're a NINJA! I've seen you wreck people twice your size!"

"That doesn't mean it isn't dangerous at night!" Ino threw the covers down as she sat up, crossing her arms testily and blowing her bangs out of her face.

"Yes, it DOES mean that!" Shikamaru answered back in exasperation, dropping his face into his hands.

"Tough shit, I'm staying here! So nyah!" Sticking her tongue out at him before flopping back in bed, she rolled over onto her side.

"...fine,". Shikamaru sighed. "I'll sleep on the couch. Toss me a pillow?"

"...why the couch?" Ino's eyes darted to him, and if you asked Shikamaru, he'd tell you that she might've even looked a bit shy.

"...because you're in my bed?" His hands dropped to his sides and he cocked his head to the side.

"So?" Her voice was muffled again, as she'd pulled the covers up against her face again.

"So..." Shikamaru began, "you're...in my bed." He finished dumbly. Was she inviting him to sleep in his bed with her?

"I am." She confirmed.

"...troublesome." Shikamaru whispered to himself. Walking slowly over to the bed, he decided to just take it a moment at a time. Not his usual game plan, but there was something about this moment that seemed to call for something new.

He peeled his shirt over his head and lsat down on the other side of the bed as she rolled over to look at him.

"Wow, you're actually-" she began before he cut her off.

"Laying down? Yeah." He smiled at her in a way that he hoped made him look confident, as he had no idea what he was doing. Maybe a few shots of saké WERE a bad idea, though he didn't feel very tipsy.

"Yeah. Alright." Her face was red as she kept looking at him. Swinging his legs onto the bed, he grabbed a handful of covers (which she relinquished with a little fight) and tucked himself in before turning off the bedside lamp.

Lying in the dark, Shikamaru could feel his other senses heighten. He began aware of the sound of their breathing, and of the sweet scent of her rosewater perfume, and his eyebrows shot up a bit, remembering he'd bought her that perfume for her birthday. She'd been surprised that he remembered her favorite scent, but he didn't think she'd wear it, as her favored perfume was a heavier scent that she told him "attracted guys like honey".

Her very palpable presence next to him was hard to miss as well.

"Night." She whispered into the dark.

"Night." He replied as he closed his eyes.

(A/N yeah, so this is a thing I did. It originally started off way different but I started writing and now it's this. more fluff is promised later, and maybe the rating will change to reflect any smutty stuff I decided to do. Who knows? Stay tuned!)


End file.
